HelpHound - our most important - and helpful - articles

There are now over 1100 articles here. We never delete one as we believe this adds to our credibility - readers can scroll back over ten years' of articles and see whether or not we got it right!

What were we definitely right about?

1.  The power of Google reviews: ten years ago there were Facebook reviews, and they had over 15% of the review market. Now only 1%. And the independent sites (you see them quoted everywhere), but all added together - Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, Feefo, Reviews.io and the rest - they now make up under 20%. Google dominates. Bizarrely, we now see large corporations adopting other review sites specifically to hide their negative reviews from the public view!

2. Compliance: nearly every business that did (and does) engage with Google reviews broke (and continues to break) the law - by selectively inviting only identifiably 'happy' customers to write reviews. We continually warn businesses that the CMA is on the case of this practice and, almost more importantly how powerful the knowledge of such misbehaviour was in the hands of competitors: 'Yes, we know they look great: of course they do, because they only invite happy customers to write reviews.' 

3. SEO: just about the only thing apart from a really well-designed and optimised website that will help a business rise in local search is a steady flow of its own reviews on its own website.

 

The Top 6

Anyone can search for a specific subject, be that 'education' or 'compliance' or 'how to...' by using the search option to the right >, but every so often we look back and choose half a dozen articles that really stand out as being more than usually helpful.

 

We have seen better and we have seen 'not quite so spectacular' - one thing we have never seen after a business has adopted moderated review management is a fall in inbound enquiries!

• First and foremost: 'Results' - no business embarks on review management unless it can see concrete financial benefits, over and above any alternative strategies. The warm fuzzy feeling of seeing a great review is simply not enough. See two clients' success stories featuring both the uplift in new business as well as the quality per individual piece of business and a consumer story showing how reviews reinforce their journey and choice in the article above. For examples of businesses that had next to no Google reviews on joining see their 'before and after' positions in this article.

• Going direct to Google. It is every business's first reaction: 'Let's get loads of great Google reviews.' and their second reaction? Only invite customers who are guaranteed to write a 5* review - understandable, until you realise it is also illegal. In order to have the best of both worlds - to be CMA compliant by allowing anyone who visits a business's website to write a review and still select those you actively invite your business needs a moderated review management system. This probably comes under the heading of 'boring but essential' but it definitely enables our clients to sleep at night. You wouldn't neglect to insure your business's premises or stock; look at moderation as your business reputation's insurance.

 

If your business provides a professional service in 2025 there's only one review solution - Google (combined with moderation - see above). 

• Independent review sites. You've had the sales call - they spend an awful lot of their resources on sales, unlike Google, which doesn't sell or directly monetise its review function at all (it is, of course, extremely grateful for the flow of valuable content). If you are considering one (or have bought one) - and you want potential customers to see your reviews rather than just having a headline score and reviews that are near to impossible to find in search, read the article linked to above.

• Sectors that should begin to take Google reviews seriously.  From wealth management to the law, from private medicine to private education, those in the professions and high-value services have been late to adopt reviews. For one very good reason: asking a customer, client or patient for their opinion of a sometimes extremely complex process is fraught with hazard. The solution is in combining a Google reviews strategy with independent moderation as described in the second paragraph above. On average about 7% of the reviews our clients receive contain errors of fact or statements with the potential to mislead the reader of their review. These are invariably reconciled before the review is ultimately published, on our client's own website or to Google, thanks to our moderation process.

 

• If you like an infographic you will welcome this article: it illustrates and explains the review process from beginning to end, although in reality there is no end, because reviews are now such a firmly embedded part of everyday interaction between consumer and business - they are here to stay.

• 10 things HelpHound will do for your business. Perhaps this should have been the first bullet point, but if you've read this far it will prove a valuable aide memoire and checklist. 

And finally...

The best thing your business can do is prove all the above for itself.  By adopting professional review management. Here are two more articles to round out the key information about HelpHound...

• Our fees and our guarantee

HelpHound - our fees for 2025

As clients know, we have held our fees since well before the onset COVID-19 (we also reduced them by half for the duration of the pandemic). From 2024 we introduced a new fee scale - this rewards clients that...

• achieve critical mass with both their own and Google reviews

• recommend us to other businesses

The basic* fee scale is as follows...

Joining, set-up and implementation                                  £ 495 

Monthly                                                                             £ 345

until 100 reviews on own site and 50 on Google

Monthly, after the above numbers are achieved               £ 245

Hourly advisory fee**                                                        £ 295                                                  

Drafting an appeal against a Google review                     £ 200-500   

Important Notes:

1. 'Joining, set-up and implementation' includes everything from supplying the code for your web designer to enable them to implement our API (or module) on your website to advise your business on how best to train your management and staff to achieve the optimum results from your membership. This will be tailored for your precise business circumstances and will recognise your current position with regard to Google reviews - none, some or many.
2. The monthly fee includes moderation of every review submitted via your website or any other mechanism - your email to your customer inviting them to submit their review, for instance - and full support by our client services team from 9-5 every weekday as well as an emergency number to contact us outside those hours.
3. The reduced monthly fee reflects the fact that once these numbers are achieved your business is likely to need far less input from HelpHound - you will have achieved critical mass on both your own website and on Google, where the positive results of Professional Review Management really begin to bear fruit: increased enquiries through both your own website and through Google search.
4. Drafting a Google appeal: the chances of you needing this service after you have joined HelpHound are much reduced (our moderation will ensure that) but in cases where a customer - or another poster: a disappointed job applicant or a competitor - writes a review, direct to Google, that contravenes their terms of service, we will use our extensive experience to draft an appeal to Google.
5. *The fees outlined above are 'per location' and assume a flow of reviews to the business's website of <= 30 per calendar month. In instances of businesses with multiple locations/branches, a scale of reduced fees will be applicable. In cases where review flows average significantly in excess of 30 per month, fees will be agreed on a case-by-case between HelpHound and our client.
6. **Advisory fees: these are charged when a business requires detailed advice on integrating review management with its CRM processes. They are not charged for the initial consultation and are waived entirely in cases where HelpHound's own software (API) is implemented as part of the recommended solution.
7. If travel outside the M25 London Orbital is required, both time and out-of-pocket expenses will be charged.

Initial meetings

We will begin with a face-to-face or online meeting to establish your business's exact requirements, during which we will agree on a strategy for implementation and training. In the majority of cases this meeting - which is free - will be all that we both need to progress to full implementation. 

Recommending HelpHound

As any business knows, some of the best new clients often come by recommendations from existing clients. In this case, HelpHound credits the introducing business with 25% of the fees invoiced to the recommended business for the first year of membership. 

Further reading

• Partnering with HelpHound - a great way to help non-competitive business contacts and add an income stream for your own business

• A guarantee of success - rare in the world of business services, HelpHound guarantees success

Sectors that should begin to take Google reviews seriously

Here at HelpHound, we have lived and breathed the evolution of reviews in general for nearly twenty years now - and we switched focus to Google reviews as soon as they were first introduced in 2010. We understood the reticence of some businesses when it came to actively engaging - the risk/reward equation was initially tipped heavily towards 'not worth it' for some categories of service business. Those days, however, are now in the past. Read on and we will explain.

It didn't take us long to realise that Google reviews would trump all other review solutions - they now make up 79% of all reviews written - and we estimate, because of their visibility and credibility, as much as 95% of reviews read by consumers. 

As a result, we sometimes assume that all businesses and business sectors are up-to-speed and have, by now, adopted at least some kind of Google-focussed review management solution. Then we bump up against one that has yet to find one that suits them ('suits them' being the key here).

In this article we are going to focus on those sectors that have, in the main, yet to adopt such a solution and ask the key question: given the myriad of positive reasons to do so - increased inbound enquiries, support for conversion, and so on (see below): why not? And then we will go on to demonstrate the solution that will remove the understandable lingering doubts that these businesses have.

In no particular order...

• Wealth managers and financial advisers

• Independent schools

• Care Homes

• Marketing and PR agencies

• Accountants

• Private Medicine

So why have they not engaged?

It cannot be because they...

• don't want the increased enquiries for potential customers (patients/parents/investors/clients) that come with a great Google reviews profile
• want to actively deflect potential future custom by having - in some cases - low Google scores and predominantly negative reviews
• don't want the kind of social proof that reassures and encourages potential customers to make first contact

We, naturally enough, have the answer...

• they are afraid that their customers - clients/patients/parents - will post factually incorrect reviews - not all, but some. And 'some' is enough when looking at a comment that will live forever on the web. This is, by far, the number 1 reason that businesses avoid engaging with Google reviews.

What has changed in the recent past that should make these businesses reconsider?

1. Five years ago a business stood a good chance of 'flying under the radar' where Google reviews were concerned: many just didn't have any reviews. Now Google reviews are ubiquitous, if a business has a physical address it will invariably have Google reviews.
2. The overwhelming majority of consumers have now engaged with Google reviews - both reading and writing. A significant proportion of consumers use a business's Google score as a shorthand means of narrowing down their options. They then read the reviews themselves before contacting (or deciding not to contact) the businesses. Especially where high-value services such as those listed above are concerned. 
3. Dissatisfied consumers are far more likely to write a review. If you look at some of the businesses above with low scores, odds on that will be a big part of the reason. But that is not factored in by consumers, for many of them a low Google score = 'don't bother' and few reviews = 'a business that doesn't care'. Strangely some businesses continue to wear non-engagement as a badge of honour, but never in well over a decade have we seen a business engage and then revert to their previous standpoint.
4. A business can now 'insure' against factually incorrect or potentially misleading reviews by employing a moderated system. Moderation will not deflect honestly and rightly held negative opinions - and nor should it, or all credibility, upon which trust in reviews is based would be lost - but it will enable a reviewer who has 'got the wrong end of the stick', as so often happens when dealing with complex services, to reassess and rewrite (or even withdraw) their review before it is published.

Further reading

• Google trumps all other review solutions - by a country mile (and it's free!): but we continue to hear 'But we have adopted [insert name of review site - Feefo, Trustpilot, Yelp, Yell or Reviews.io and then the more obscure single-sector sites such as Doctify and CareHome]'. Look at the figures in this article and then speak to us; the obvious solution, at least initially, is to use both your original choice alongside a Google solution, at least until you have been able to monitor enquiry and conversion levels for a period. Oh - and here's our guarantee.

• Case histories: here is an article with precise numbers, showing increases in inbound enquiries as well as numbers and quality of business completed. And here is a 'before and after' showing just what can be achieved for two very different service businesses when they adopt a moderated review management solution.

Google and the UK CMA - one step closer

 

This action, described in full in this important article, takes the CMA one big step closer to sanctioning individual businesses that play fast and loose with Google reviews

Let us be clear (for those who haven't read our many previous articles about complying with the CMA regulations)...

Businesses should be alert to the fact that Google will wish to be seen to take action, both by the CMA and by the consumer press, against businesses flouting the CMA's core regulations (see below)

Tens of thousands of UK businesses are currently laying themselves wide open to prosecution by the CMA for...

• cherry-picking customers to invite to post Google reviews - cherry-picking is simple to do, and equally simple to spot: it involves only asking those customers a business is absolutely sure will write a glowing 5* review to do so

• gating: slightly more complicated - using a questionnaire or email to identify those customers and only then asking them to write a review

That's it, in a nutshell. If a business is doing either one of these it is in its best interest to stop - right now. Because it is so easy for others - be it the CMA, Google, or simply your competitors - to spot. 

• Your business has dozens - hundreds - thousands - of customers every month, yet it attracts only a handful of Google reviews over a similar period

• You have customers who have never been invited to write a Google review, yet you have Google reviews (we hear and see examples of this daily)

• Your score on Google diverges dramatically from that on a review site you employ - 4.8 on Trustpilot v. 3.9 on Google, for instance

And what do the businesses in this category say to us? They say that it is unfair to demand that they ask every customer to write a review; they say that they have some customers - don't we all? - that are never happy, however hard they try.

This article is not a sales pitch for HelpHound, but our answer to those two points is a simple 'Yes - we agree on both counts': we then go on to say 'your business needs to adopt a moderated system that allows ('allows' - is the key word here) all of your customers - and other stakeholders - to write a review. And then you are free to actively invite all those you wish to' (Our serious and candid advice is: once you are confident that the system works: invite all of your customers to write a review on your own website, where it will benefit from moderation and you will be able to answer - it helps massively with customer retention). 

Look at this screengrab...

...there's your business's 'compliance button' where anyone can click and write a review.

Further reading

• Review sites on the rack at the BBC - it's not only the regulators that are concerned that reviews can be trusted by consumers

• Last summer we were privileged to have an in-depth conversation with a senior member of staff at the CMA; every business should read the resulting article

• Why have we not mentioned all the review sites in this article, the Feefos and the Trustpilots and the rest, surely the CMA is just as interested in the trustworthiness of the reviews they host? Read this article. Google now accounts for 4 out of 5 reviews posted, and we estimate for over 95% of all reviews read by consumers. We have advised clients to steer clear of review sites in favour of Google for well over 10 years now. Thankfully for all concerned.

Glad we bullied you into focussing on Google reviews?

Back in the day there were a plethora of review offerings, from Facebook to Feefo and Trustilot, from Yelp to Trustatrader and Yell. The list was almost endless. But we stuck firmly with Google. Every one of our clients, for over ten years now has been given this simple advice...

Many people still attribute the stars (and score) you see above to Google. They are actually pulled, by Google, from the business's own reviews hosted on the business's own website.

1. Get reviews to your own website - so they can be moderated and to boost your SEO (and get stars in Google searches)
2. Get those reviews copied over to Google - as many as you possibly can

We did not base this advice on guesswork; it was obvious to us that the other review sites would struggle against Google, for the following reasons...

• Google reaches by far the most consumers: Google was - and remains - the gatekeeper: anyone looking for a business (or a review of a business) has to use a search engine, and Google dominated search - and continues to do so
• Google has credibility: most consumers now understand that there are no barriers to writing a review on Google (much as some businesses wish there were!) and that, unlike sites such as Trustpilot and Feefo and Trustatrader, Google has no direct financial interest in the businesses under review. In short: consumers have come to trust Google reviews.

The numbers

Just look at this chart...

Source: Birdeye 

Facebook, against many pundits' predictions, has dwindled to around 1% of the online reviews market. All the other review sites together total just 20%. 

Here are some more interesting statistics taken from the article linked to above: 

• Google reviews soared by 15%, capturing 79% of all online reviews
• Each business location, on average, received 66 new Google reviews
• Google captured 94% of healthcare, 92% of legal, and 90% of home services reviews
• Facebook’s share of online reviews took a steep dive to 1% in 2023, down from 23% in 2016, marking a drastic reduction in its importance as a review platform

For reviews of high-value services Google is not just dominant, it is just about the only resource trusted by consumers today. All of which corroborates our historical and current advice.

Remind us: where, exactly, does HelpHound come into this equation?

Apart from the 'stars in search' at the head of this article, HelpHound's role is threefold...

1. To provide moderation of factually inaccurate or potentially misleading reviews, enabling the business to confidently ask for reviews in the secure knowledge that the reviewer will be asked to correct them before they are published anywhere - on the business's website or on Google
2. To enable our businesses to comply with the law - the CMA regulations in the UK
3. To provide the software to make the process as seamless as it can be 

And, in addition, to provide tailored specific advice throughout your business's reviews journey.

Further reading

• The proof is in the pudding: concrete proof that you can expect an uplift in business and, just as importantly, an uplift in the quality of each individual piece of business. Backed by our guarantee.

AI and online reviews - does it have a role to play?

Our answer is 'perhaps'. We advise every business to respond to their reviews - all of their reviews - but the overwhelming majority still do not. When we ask them why not we receive answers ranging from 'It's too time-consuming' to 'We are concerned that responding will simply prolong the conversation.' Our answer to both of those is 'All of our fifteen years of experience tells us that businesses that respond to reviews a) score higher and b) receive more enquiries than those that do not. Tried. Tested. Definitively.' The reason that they score higher is very simple: those who are tempted to write a negative review of a business think twice when they know, for certain, that the business will respond.

We also know that some businesses are concerned that they may delegate the task to a member of staff whose written English is not all that good. Again our answer is to channel the response through someone whose written English is good (Grammarly, anyone?).

But failing all of the above, there's AI. Here's a typical negative review...

And here we have asked Microsoft Copilot to draft a response (that's all - no hints):

Here is Copilot's suggested response (delivered in less than a second - free):

Surely this is better - far better - than no response at all? It addresses the issues raised in the review and we are sure that the reviewer will appreciate it, and that others who read it - just about everyone who looks up the business online - will be impressed by it. 

We would love to hear what you have to say - comments below please.

The support your business 'must have' for reviews in 2025

You don't need us to repeat the catalogue of headwinds facing business these days, so we won't! We are going to dive straight into how HelpHound can bring business through the door for your business in the coming year - not 'hopefully', not 'perhaps if you...' but more business, guaranteed.

Guaranteed?

Yes. No ifs, no buts. And you get to set the parameters of that guarantee: tell us what you need to achieve to make your HelpHound membership profitable and we will then set a timescale (usually a matter of weeks; months at the most). 

How can we do this?

Because we know our job (and that is to help great businesses positively glow in search), and by the time we begin working for you, we will know your business as well. 

Look at these two examples, the first in a sector that is never voted 'most popular' by consumers and the second in a sector that you might think would struggle to achieve any reviews at all...one approached HelpHound when it had 5 Google reviews, the other had none whatsoever...

Left: the estate agent that was concerned about being fully legally compliant and understood if they began hand-picking 'happy' clients to invite to post reviews they wouldn't just be in breach of the CMA regulations but also handing their competitors a pretty big stick to beat them with. 

Right: the Harley Street women's health clinic that was afraid that their patients might resent being asked to write publicly visible reviews.

And now?

Both, given their respective marketplaces, are examples of resounding successes, for the businesses themselves and for HelpHound. Such success can be obtained without HelpHound's moderation, but will invariably involve...

• a far greater risk of inaccurate or misleading reviews being posted on Google (and these invariably rate the business at 1*)

• a far higher likelihood of breaching the CMA regulations

The estate agent: 

1.  A great score. At 4.9 with over 500 reviews. Anyone searching for an agent in that area is going to be short-listing this business. We are proud to have played our part in it being able to open a second branch.

2.  A fabulous showing in local search.

• Leading the Google 3-pack

• Leading in organic search

• Having the business's own review score (the '4.9 from 716' reviews comes from the business's own reviews hosted on its own website) pulled through in all local searches

3. A marked increase in enquiries through all kinds of Google search

Not only does hosting their own reviews on their own website enhance the business's SEO (it is widely estimated that this can add up to 15% of a business's score for SEO purposes), but it directly impacts the flow of enquiries to the business through search. Past experience indicates an uplift of between 15 and 25 per cent. Sometimes appreciably more.  

4. A sustained improvement in customer relations

Inviting reviews, initially to the business's own website, has added benefits. Foremost amongst these is the ability to resolve misunderstandings before they result in an inaccurate or misleading review or, as is almost always the case in such instances, the loss of a fee-earning client. And did we mention staff morale? One of the most morale-sapping things that can happen these days is a factually flawed review mentioning a staff member by name, remaining on in the business's Google reviews and showing in search for eternity. 

5.  Great marketing ammunition

All our clients prominently - and proudly - display their customer's reviews on their websites (usually, as above, in conformation with their own branding and website design). This enables them to fully comply with the UK CMA regulations by including an invitation to write a review (arrowed), thus allowing all their reviews to be moderated by one of our expert moderators.

This dramatically reduces the likelihood of a factually inaccurate, potentially misleading - or just plain unfair - review making it into print on the business's website and - importantly - onwards to Google*.

*Everyone who writes a review to one of our client's websites is then automatically invited to copy it to Google

They also show their reviews...

• Face-to-face: to potential clients - iPad or phone or PoS

• In their social media: reviews posted across all platforms

• In all their advertising and marketing: with scores and individual reviews mobilised to provide powerful social proof

The women's health clinic

When we first approached the medical profession, one doctor commented that his patients fell into two categories: those he cured and those he did not cure (the implication being that the former would write glowing reviews and the latter one would rate him one star). When the Harper Clinic in Harley Street approached us, it had studiously avoided inviting patients for reviews, partly for that reason but mainly because they feared that privacy considerations would consistently trump patients' willingness to write a public review. How did we address this?

• first: with very careful and considered wording of the email inviting the review, stressing the need for honestly held patient opinions to be shared with those most in need: future patients in a similar position. And stressing that writing a review - either to the practice's own website and/or to Google was entirely optional

• second; sensitive moderation by HelpHound, opening a dialogue with the reviewer where their review contains errors of fact or potentially misleading statements 

• third: by encouraging the clinic to respond to each and every review, stressing its gratitude on behalf of future patients

The results? Understandably many patients remained reluctant to express their opinions publicly, so the conversion rate was, and remains, far lower than that for a sector such as estate agency. But the quality of the reviews, which is ultimately what matters in a case such as this...well, we will let you be the judge. Here are the three most recent...

...not only have these patients willingly written extremely reassuring reviews, in some detail, but they have done so under their real names. That's how strongly they feel that people in their situation should be able to share their experience of their treatment by the clinic.

So - back to our promise for 2025

Set out your hopes, from a review management standpoint, for your business in the year ahead. Here are some prompts you might like to use: target...

• the number of reviews - on your own site
• the number of reviews - on Google
• the score - on your own site
• the score - on Google (tip: make this at least 4.8)
• the uplift in enquiries - through your own site
• the uplift in enquiries - through Google
• the reduction in negative reviews

Oh, and don't forget 'ensuring compliance'! And then speak to us. We will benchmark those with you along with a timescale. And then off we go.

Further reading...

• Our charges - no contract period, that's how confident we are that HelpHound's review management will work for your business - and they fall as you succeed

• Results - they speak for themself: enquiries up and quality per enquiry up as well. The numbers in this article are realistic - we have had clients whose enquiries have doubled!

• Moderation - the golden key to protecting your business against factually incorrect, potentially misleading or just plain unfair reviews - anywhere 

• The law - compliance is important, not just because the CMA sanctions can be onerous but because being non-compliant - cherry-picking or gating - will be obvious to competitors that will use it against the non-compliant business in pitches